Xubuntu, the Xfce Ubuntu flavor, has been released today along with the other Ubuntu flavours. It's a great alternative for those who do not want to use GNOME Shell or Unity and prefer a more traditional layout.

Xfce 4.10 by default

Xfce 4.10, which is used in Xubuntu 12.10, brings many improvements, including:

- re-written application finder which combines the functionality of the old appfinder and xfrun4:

- a new vertical display mode for the panel, called "deskbar" which switches the applets orientation to horizontal, making the panel behave like a vertical 'dock':

- multiple rows support for the panel:

Other Xfce changes include:

the window manager supports tiling windows when dragging them to the screen edges

thumbnail rendering support for Xfdesktop

the mouse and touchpad dialog is capable of handling basic Synaptics and Wacom properties in the GUI

Xubuntu 12.10 artwork

The artwork has received special attention in Xubuntu 12.10. For instance, Greybird, the default Xubuntu 12.10 theme, has got a complete makeover, with re-written GTK3 support:

There's also a new default wallpaper, updated login screen and Ubiquity slideshow:

Default applications

To make Xubuntu 12.10 fit on a CD (unlike Ubuntu), quite a few default applications were removed. In Xubuntu 12.10, you'll no longer find Synaptic Package Manager, GIMP, Gnumeric or Startup Disk Creator installed by default. There are also less games: only Mines and Sudoku are available on the CD.